7 PhD Programs in Art Studies in USA for 2024

The Ph.D. in Visual and Performing Arts degree program is designed primarily for individuals who wish to conduct advanced research and to teach at the college level and can lead to a wide variety of non-academic careers as well. Visual and Performing Arts is an interdisciplinary program of study, so students take the majority of their coursework in Visual and Performing Arts courses, but must also take two seminars each in both History of Ideas and Literature.

The Ph.D. program in Arts, Technology, and Emerging Communication (A.T.E.C.) is designed for those who wish to engage in deep scholarship or to develop artistic, cultural, or commercial applications of digital technology and emerging media. With a diverse group of faculty and a curriculum that integrates scholarly study with creative practice, A.T.E.C. cultivates creative scholars, scholarly practitioners, and interdisciplinary researchers.

Students in Art and Religion focus on the theological, cultural, and spiritual meanings expressed by, and experienced through, visual, plastic, performative, liturgical, and ritual arts across local and global religious contexts.

The PhD in Design, Environment and the Arts Program in the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts has an explicit mission: to prepare students to become public intellectuals and transformative practitioners in shaping the environment at all scales – from the design of cities, buildings, and landscapes, to interiors, products and graphics.

As a decentralized and indeed deterritorialized institution, IDSVA offers a low-residency, distance-learning PhD program that allows working professionals to keep their faculty posts and curatorial positions and allows them to maintain their family and community obligations.

Our unique three-year Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) full-time low-residency program requires an average work commitment of 30 hours per week. Intensive dates and lengths will vary between 2 and 14 days. You will study wherever you live and work conducting independent research with the support of individual advisory teams and peer critique

In keeping with Harrison Middleton University's commitment to promote excellence in education and its desire to create highly trained scholars and professionals who have a broad, intellectual perspective in the humanities, the university offers a Doctor of Arts program.